Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nFor a century they had waited, silently imprisoned, safe in the ground. A century gone by without change, until\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A pattering of rain began to fall. The drops gaining in size and frequency as the rare clouds finally let go of their precious cargo. At first, the rain beaded and ran over the surface of the fine, red dust. Soon, however, the larger drops pushed past the surface and the thirsty soil swallowed them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As their hard prisons dissolved, they emerged, ravenous. There was no hesitation as they hunted down their prey. By the thousands they spread out, spearing their prey with a needle-like mouth before sucking out their insides. As the rain soaked more ground, more of their brethren awoke from their slumber and joined in the slaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As quickly as it had started, the rain stopped. The soil held the water greedily, though, allowing the continued frenzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The faint light of day gave way to the dark of night, and still they continued, blindly searching out their prey, spearing them, and sucking out their insides. As they ate they grew, some faster than others. The faster growing of them reached a size twice that of the others. The smaller, however, grew a spear-like appendage they could extend from their cloaca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter how much they ate, there was an endless supply of prey, far more than they could ever devour. The first of them to emerge were beginning to slow down. The instinct to eat was on the wane, and another was emerging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Night again turned to day, melting the thin layer of ice that had formed on the surface during the night. Vibrations spread through the ground around them, but they ignored it. They were driven by instinct and smell alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where they had first spread out, they began to congregate. The smaller ones were drawn to the larger. When they got close enough, the small ones speared the larger with their spear-like appendage, depositing their genetic material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the violent coitus, the larger ones left to again eat, while the smaller simply stopped moving. They had served their purpose and would die soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The large ones kept on the move, eating and depositing their eggs over a wide area. When the last of their eggs were laid, they too, would die, having ensured that the next ravenous generation would return\u2026someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmmonia, slight increase in soil nitrogen\u2026I\u2019d say they survived.\u201d Gavin, tall and thin, dressed in a heavy coat, warm gloves, and an oxygen mask covering the lower half of his mahogany face, studied the display of the sampler built into the sleeve of his jacket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet\u2019s take a look,\u201d Ayla said. Shorter than Gavin, her figure was indiscernible beneath the heavy clothes. Her face was pink around the oxygen mask. She scooped up a sample of the red mud with a spoon, repurposed for this occasion, and placed it in the 3-D microscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A holographic display showed in the air above the microscope. With careful gestures, Ayla turned the display, zooming in and examining the sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat looks like it might be an egg encapsulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does,\u201d Gavin agreed. \u201cSee the slight track there? Try to follow that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She did as he suggested. Soon, a figure became clear in the holograph. A squirming tube, narrowed at both ends, thrashed through the soil and deposited another egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNice,\u201d Gavin said, \u201chealthy female, and eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we have a male in here too, we can head back.\u201d Ayla began to follow the track backwards from the female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you really in a hurry to go back to the dome?\u201d Gavin asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is huge,\u201d she said, \u201cand I\u2019m excited. Aren\u2019t you? Besides, we need to see what kind of genetic damage a century of solar radiation might have done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFind your male,\u201d he said, \u201cthen take a break. I\u2019ve brought along a little bottle of champagne to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs that all you think about?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat? Breaks, celebrations\u2026champagne?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExcuses to slack off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gavin snorted. \u201cJust find your male. Hopefully you didn\u2019t scoop her up too far away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere he is!\u201d Ayla zoomed the holographic image in to the unmoving male, his spear-like appendage still fully extended. She turned off the microscope and closed the sample container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gavin held a split of champagne in one hand, his eyes turned skyward. Ayla looked up. The clouds were gathering again, darker than the previous day. \u201cDo you think?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe second rain in as many days? It\u2019s possible.\u201d He returned his attention to the champagne. \u201cBut we have yet to celebrate the first rain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere were you last night? The parties in the dome were insane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was busy calibrating equipment for this,\u201d he said, pointing to the sample container. \u201cBesides, I thought it might rain again today, and I wanted to be in it, rather than a hundred kilometers away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t suppose you brought any glasses?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNope, waste of time.\u201d He popped the cork and handed the bottle to Ayla. \u201cThis way you don\u2019t have to worry about my germs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayla chuckled. She raised her mask and took a drink from the split. It was cold and clean, with hints of apple. She lowered her mask and handed the bottle back to Gavin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He took a deep draught from the bottle, swallowing nearly half the contents. He lowered his mask, taking a deep breath. As Ayla reached for the bottle, he burped in his mask, making her laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs it as good the second time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sniffed exaggeratedly. \u201cDivine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rain again began to patter down, and both looked to the sky. \u201cTwice in two days!\u201d Gavin did an impromptu dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He removed his mask and opened his mouth wide, tongue out, letting the rain fall on it. He laughed and kept doing it until he got too dizzy to continue and had to put his mask back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re crazy, you know that, right?\u201d Ayla let the cold rain wash over her upturned face, icy rivulets running down her neck to snake under her heavy coat and run down her spine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust think,\u201d Gavin said, \u201cnot only did the nematodes survive over a century before the first rain, but we<\/em> were the first to experience rain on Mars!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"prompt: The first rain of the season arrives. Write a story that begins immediately afterward. available at Reedsy For a century they had waited, silently imprisoned, safe in the ground. A century gone by without …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pxT7i-B3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2300,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions\/2300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}